Lots of music come with “all rights reserved”. But often people need music they can freely redistribute as part of a project. Where can they find it?
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Games developers, Flash developers, Powerpoint slideshow developers, tutorial writers and even musicians sometimes need to distribute the source files of their project. But if the music they use is “all rights reserved”, that becomes a problem.
For example, I recently received an email asking for help for someone working on a tutorial about creating a Flash audio mixer. The source files of the project is going to be distributed as part of the tutorial – preferably with the example music included. Distributing copyrighted music would land this author in hot water.
So, where can people download music with an appropriate license in situations like these – whether it is public domain, creative commons, “free music”, or some other compatible license? Are you part of a project that makes music like this available? Or do you use “redistributable” music in your own projects? Let us know in the comments.
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http://ccmixter.org/
It’s all Creative Commons material, specifically to be remixed, also remixes that can be redistributed.
Voice artists are often looking for this kind of thing. But music, like a lot of things, is very much a “you get what you pay for” sort of thing. Free music is often not worth your time due to quality.
That being said, you can check out something like http://freemusicarchive.org. According to their site:
“Every mp3 you discover on The Free Music Archive is pre-cleared for certain types of uses that would otherwise be prohibited by copyright laws that were not designed for the digital era. These uses vary and are determined by the rightsholders themselves (please see our FAQ) who feel that allowing a degree of free cultural access is beneficial not only to their own pursuits, but to our society as a whole. Are you a podcaster looking for pod-safe audio? A radio or video producer searching for instrumental bed music that won’t put your audience to sleep? A remix artist looking for pre-cleared samples? Or are you simply looking for some new sounds to add to your next playlist? The Free Music Archive is a resource for all that and more, and unlike other websites, all of the audio has been hand-picked by established audio curators.”
Also look into jewelbeat.com for free music and sound effects. Your mileage may vary.
If you can afford it, you can look into a multitude of music sources that were compiled by voice artist and news anchor Dave Courvoisier here: http://www.voiceoverxtra.com/article.htm?id=gv9tlfyb
Great suggestions so far guys. Thanks! And don’t forget, the issue isn’t one of cost, but license. Where can we get music that can be redistributed (even if it’s not free)?
I release my own music under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (or “CC-BY-SA”) 3.0 licence. That means you can redistribute it freely, and you can also use it as part of a “derivate work” (ie: remixing it in to a new track, or using it as backing music for a video), as long as that derivative work is also released under the same licence (and therefore let others do the same with your work).
http://wootangent.net/music/
You can find some good Creative Commmons (free to share and free to redistribute) on http://www.jamendo,com or on http://www.soundclick.com or on http://wwww.dogmazic.net :)
I’d head to Jamendo:
http://www.jamendo.com/
Oleg Mokhov and Nathan Hangen recently started a service called SoundTrackster that offers royalty free music tracks (background type stuff). I believe that they charge an upfront cost of download, but you’re free to use it how you want without having to pay royalties. Not sure about free distribution, but they’re royalty free at least.
A friend of mine is running such a service. It’s not really maintained due to it being known to a very narrow group of users, but maybe you can make a difference by submitting your music. Everything is available for download for free, licenced under some flavour of Creative Commons (all CC-*-SA works are dual licenced, where indie game developers are exempt from the SA clause).
http://roguebard.eptalys.net (no proper domain name yet because of low interest).
Basically, all music available on the world wide web with a Creative Commons License can be used for redistribution, but HOW you distribute it must conform to the respective license.
Sources that are my favorite include:
[1] Jamendo. Probably the largest and easiest to navigate concerning CC music: http://jamendo.com
[2] Soundcloud. Second most open to CC music. Not all of them are, but a large number are, including big hits from established artists: http://soundcloud.com
[3] Bandcamp. More used for the music purchasing platform, but again a number of artists make their music available via a CC license: http://bandcamp.com
[4] Remember to check your local scene. In my country there are sites such as http://sixteenhole.com (Indonesia) where local bands network and mostly make their music also available via CC licensing.
[5] I might as well mention my music is also CC licensed: http://soundcloud.com/endydaniyanto. Mostly pop ballad tunes reminiscent of the 90′s with the occasional excursion into other styles.
[6] Bonus: if you run on Linux Ubuntu OS, the included Rhythmbox media player already links you to several sites where you can browse CC and public domain music to stream or download them; all you need is an internet connection.
Cheers,